I tried bowing today by pulling full strokes, from frog to tip. However, I noticed that when the middle of the bow is contacting the string, it tends to wobble sideways. I guess this should be solved with practice. Also been concentrating more on moving my elbow, and not my shoulders when bowing.

And according to FM, you'll need to put more pressure when you're towards the tip of the bow, and less pressure towards the frog, to maintain an equal volume throughout. So I've been working on that as well.

I noticed a fine coat of white dust on my string too - does this mean I'm applying too much rosin?

Have you all encountered this problems before? How did you make sure you were bowing straight?

I found out from a few users at the FiddlerMan community (Fiddle4Fun & CatMcCall) that your wrist flexes the most when bowing, and that your fingers merely supports the stick. A bowing video at FiddlerMan also states that the movement comes from the elbow, not your shoulders.

I have created an account on the FiddlerMan forums - BakaKitty. Did a post on the forums too! I hope that I'll be able to get some guidance from the more experienced fiddlers there as well!

Today I noticed a metallic sharpness on my stock violin strings... Maybe it is time to spend a bit on better chords? Or do you think its just my newbie bowing (open strings) sounding terrible?

My plan on my 2nd day is to continue on my bow hold, checking in the mirror to see if my finger placements were correct. I noticed a strain on my wrists. (Is this fatigue? Or am I holding the bow wrongly, thus straining said wrists?)

I then tried bowing a few strokes, and noticed that my thumb kept sliding into the frog. (Does anyone know ways to prevent that? Am I doing something wrongly like too much pressure on the thumb?)

Have you encountered the problems I've highlighted? Share them in the comments below!

My name's Darren and I'm from Singapore. Before I start though, I want to thank my girlfriend Rachta Lin for putting up with the ruckus that will ensue, Tom Koh for helping me with musical knowledge, Swee Kwang from Johann Strings who helped set up the instrument & guided me along with starting tips, Todd Ehle (a.k.a. professorV) who spent so much time & effort making a wonderful series of videos that I plan to use daily during my learning process, and Lindsey Stirling, the hip-hop violinist who inspired me to actually begin this monumental task.

Having absolutely no music background, I'm about to embark on a path to self-learn the violin. Today's the first day I officially start my journey, and I will spend 30minutes daily practicing it.

For many years, I have always enjoyed the smooth sound a violin makes. It is by far my favorite instrument but have never been motivated enough to actually learn it. I know its a tedious challenge, but yet, here I am, after many years of admiring the fiddle.

My first goal to learning the violin is to get comfortable with holding the bow the correct way. After some tips from Swee Kwang and professorV, I'm going to attempt to get the hold to feel natural.

By the end of the lesson, I think I've sort of managed to hold it. What do you guys think? Any thing that I'm doing wrongly?